Browsing: Work at heights | Page 9

The mother of a young worker impaled on a steel rod has been awarded more than $200,000 for post-traumatic stress linked to the incident, while her son has been awarded $520,000, and two negligent companies have been ordered to foot most of the bill.

A WHS prosecutor has been given the green light to pursue a business that was charged with recklessly causing a patron's death, but is now in liquidation, with a court finding the case isn't blocked by corporations laws.

A PCBU and its director have failed to overturn their WHS recklessness penalties of $500,000 and suspended jail time, with a superior court highlighting the director's failure to exercise due diligence and his high moral culpability.

• WHS laws around hazardous crane lifts explained; and
  
• Safety enforcement action captures company profits.

A business owner who allegedly recklessly disregarded safety complaints at a work site could be jailed for decades, after being charged with the industrial manslaughter of a worker in a fall. Meanwhile, a regulator has released a workplace fatality toll including deaths from disease and suicide.

A company has been found guilty of safety breaches and fined $400,000, over a high-profile incident where a large bucket of concrete fell from a crane and killed a man working below the suspended load. Another employer has been fined $300,000 after a worker was struck by a forklift.

• Critical safety information not relayed to worker; and
  
• Workplace safety "warrior" among Vic award winners.

A court has warned against undertaking "cursory" safety inspections for height work, in finding a PCBU's WHS breaches, relating to a fatal fall, warranted a $500,000 penalty.

A principal contractor has been convicted and fined over an incident where two workers were injured in a fall from an excavator bucket - an event that has already attracted a high-level WHS penalty and elicited an industry-wide warning from a judge.

A judge has referred one of his WHS rulings to a government minister, to highlight the prevalence of deaths and serious injuries from height work, and possibly inform legislative change.